creanium.net

So as some of you may know already, I’ve been dating Jess for about the last 5 months. And if you don’t know already, I’ve been dating a girl named Jess for the last 5 months, heh.

Jess and I actually had been friends about 3 years before we began dating. She lived at home in Riverside that entire time. She moved down to San Diego in January of this year to attend the Design Institute of San Diego.

We started hanging out a bit once she was living just two exists away. In an effort to help her feel more comfortable in San Diego, I would give her tours of the different parts of the city. Driving around the city gave us time to talk more and get to know each other better.

So on a Saturday in March, we went to Disneyland for the day to celebrate a mutual friend’s birthday. We had such a great time, that on the way home, we talked and decided to start dating.

We’ve basically been inseparable ever since, seeing each other virtually every day.

I couldn’t be happier.

Hey everyone (all two of you that still read this thing). Just wanted to get the word out and let you know that I’ve been busy lately making websites for family and friends.

Mike Tuck Fishing
The first one I did recently is for my brother-in-law’s fishing career. Mike came to me in early September and we immediately got to working on a website for him. Within just a couple weeks, we put together a rather nice website that he is happy to promote and share with others. He has even been able to land some sponsorships because of the website.

Always Clear San Diego
The next website I just completed a couple of weeks ago. It is a site for a friend of mine’s window cleaning business. I am very pleased with the outcome of the site as it is one of the cleanest and nicest-looking websites I have ever done (in my opinion). My main goal was to keep the site clean and straight-forward. I was going for a “glassy” look with the design, using transparent and glossy elements. I feel like I pulled it off very well. Feel free to check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

Mike and Mary Tuck
Finally, I just finished putting together a new website for my sister and brother-in-law just last week. I had created their website before, using code I built myself from scratch. Just like with my own site, I had gotten tired of trying to keep up with all the features available out there already. So I just replaced everything I had built on their site with WordPress. Mary had found a them for WordPress that she had really liked but it had its limitations. So, me being me, I tweaked the theme to better suit her styles and I think I improved it greatly and the site looks great. Again, check it out for yourselves and let me know what you think.

I’ve got some new websites in the pipeline so keep an eye out for future announcements.

Wow. I just got back from the Journey and Def Leppard concert and it, was, AWESOME. I went with Mary, Brian, Ikaika, Liza, and a couple of Ikaika’s friends. Being two big bands from the 80’s, Mary, Brian and I decided to go all out and go 80’s for the concert.

So, of course I sported the mullet and Pantera t-shirt. Earlier in the day we did some shopping and Mary picked up a Guns n’ Roses t-shirt to wear. She busted out the Aqua Net and after a half hour of teasing, she was ready to roll with the big hair and heavy eyeliner on.

You wouldn’t believe how many people complimented me on my mullet. People would walk by at Coors Amphitheater and say, “NICE MULLET MAN!” or “ROCK ON! MULLETS RULE!”. There were even a few people there that wanted to take a picture with me. I didn’t expect that kind of reaction to it, but I guess people really appreciated it.

The tickets said the concert started at 7:30, we got there about 7:15 but was just planning on skipping the opening act. But this was the first concert I’ve ever gone to where when the ticket says 7:30, the good part of the show actually starts at 7:30. Journey went on the stage right at 7:30 and so we ran up to are seats and sang along and had a great time for the hour and a half that Journey played.

There was about a 20 minute gap between Journey and Def Leppard. Def Leppard took the stage and even though I didn’t know very many of their songs, I still had a BLAST. They knew how to rock and they just put on a great show.

As always I have pics up in the Journey/Def Leppard Concert Photo Album. Now let’s see if we go to the Aerosmith and Motley Crue show on November 9th …

So this past Friday, December 9th, my roommate Brian was driving home in his 2002 Jaguar X-Type. He was in the left lane doing about 50 in a 45 zone, when an older-model Honda Accord passed him on the right at a high rate of speed, cut him off, nearly clipping him. He tried to veer to the left to get out of the way of the Honda, and in doing so he hit the median curb, went up the embankment, hit a tree, rolled the car, sideswiped a truck and came to rest in oncoming traffic.

He walked away from the accident with a bruised nose, a few cuts on his left arm, and a sore elbow; otherwise, he’s fine. Doctors checked him out and they just cleaned and dressed the wounds.

Brian’s car after the accident

Brian’s car after the accident

Notice the imprint on the car’s trunk …

… matches this tree trunk?

Interior of the car

The accident basically took off the front of the car

The accident basically took off the front of the car

Passenger side

Passenger side

The driver’s front wheel where the accident happened. This was probably 50 feet from where the car finally rested.

As you can see, he’s pretty lucky to be alive, let alone escaping with just minor injuries.

Just a quick note to let you all know I’m still alive here.

I made a couple of minor changes to my site. In the photos section, when you’re looking at an individual photo, the information embedded in the photo will now be displayed. Things like the Date/Time the photo was taken, shutter speed, etc are now automatically pulled from the photo itself. You may find some photos that don’t have the information, that’s because when I resized the original photos for upload to my site, I didn’t save them in a way that retained that information. I’m working on replacing all the photos on my site with the copies that do have that information in them.

Speaking of photos, I’ve moved a couple things around and added some new photos. I added quite a few new Scenic pics, and I also consolidated the different SoCalEuro BBQ’s into a “SoCalEuro” section. In addition to that, I reloaded all my Jetta photos so that now they’re displayed in chronological order, so you can see the things I’ve done to my car over time.

I haven’t been up to anything all too special lately. Dusty is home for a couple of weeks now. Hung out with him for a little bit already. On Friday, we (Dusty, Brian, and I) went to dinner at the Elephant Bar and then saw Dukes of Hazzard. Dinner was good and the movie was suprisingly better than I expected, but then again I didn’t exactly have high expectations for it. I’d give it 2 1/2 stars.

Saturday, I went to a Birthday bbq/pool party for two people I know from SoCalEuro. As is usual for bbq’s like this, I had a blast. In case you’re interested, the pictures are in my Photo Album under SoCalEuro -> Jonelle’s Birthday.

Today is my mom’s birthday. My dad and I are making dinner tonight and taking care of everything for her. Then on Saturday the family is coming up and we’ll have a bbq/pool party at our house. This is what summer is all about. =)

Nothing new to report about the condo, I’m planning on heading over there after work today to see the progress they’ve made this week and to get some more pictures. Brian and I have an appointment at the design center in two weeks to pick out our flooring and window treatments. So things are progressing, but nothing major has really happened yet.

That’s it for now, back to work I go and then to the store later.

I guess I’m still recovering from not sleeping Sunday and Monday. Last night I went to bed a little after 11:00, after we lost yet another softball game (oh and Erica, Jacki and I went to Chili’s for food, dessert, and drinks after the game). I had to take Brian to the airport this morning so he could catch his 7:00 flight, so I had set the alarm on my phone to 4:50AM. Well, that didn’t work so well as the alarm never went off. Apparently there is a bug in my phone that prevents the alarm from going off when it should. If at any time during the night I get a message or someone calls and I miss the call, the alarm won’t go off until I clear the Missed Call and New Message notifications on the display. Well that’s all well and good except when I’m asleep and it’s impossible for me to clear the notifications.

I was supposed to be at Brian’s around 5:15. I didn’t wake up until 5:40 when he started calling me. I got to his house around 5:50, we loaded up and took off. I actually made pretty good time and wasn’t really speeding, I was able to drop Brian off before 6:15. I haven’t heard anything from him yet, so I’m guessing all went well because in instances like this, no news is good news I suppose.

I get home around 6:45 and am wide awake enough that it wasn’t worth going back to bed, yet. I said hi and bye to my parents as they left for work and then I watched the Family Guy movie that got leaked out 6 weeks early. It’s pretty good, basically it’s not much more than an extended-length episode. I laid back down around 8:10 and watched a little TV. Erica called me on her way to work and we talked for a few minutes. After hanging up with her, I turned the TV off and passed out. I woke up only once around 10:00 and then slept solidly again until 12:30. Even then it was all I could do to force myself to get up and not go back to sleep. Even now, an hour later, I’m feeling pretty groggy and like I could use more sleep. So obviously I haven’t fully recovered all my sleep just yet. Tomorrow I’ll get up at 8:00 like usual but then Saturday is fair game, I’m sleeping in as long as possible.

… and we didn’t do so well. We lost 25-3 to a team that obviously should not be playing in a beginners league like they are. Last week they scored 23 runs on another team, so something just isn’t right here.

On top of the crushing defeat, I was playing catcher, and the runner was trying to score. The second baseman threw the ball to me and it got to me in enough time that had I held onto the ball, he would have been out at the plate. But instead, the ball bounced out of my glove, because I caught it in the inside of my glove and that jammed my thumb. It was fine at first, just hurt a little bit, but then it got progressively worse to the point now that I can’t really use it without it being too painful. I have some ice on it, but I don’t know just how much it’s helping.

And so not only all that drama, but I also haven’t shaken off this cold and I keep coughing and feeling like crap. So needless to say, I’m not in the very best of condition or moods at the moment. I took two Tylenol PM’s because of the pain in my thumb and also because when I’m physically active after about 7:00 or 8:00, I have trouble sleeping. At this point I’m just killing time, waiting for the sleep-aid to kick in.

Today wasn’t a bad day at all, everything just went to pot at night. I woke up and did a little work, checking emails and whatnot. Then Erica took me up to Souplantation for some soup because I wasn’t feeling well at all. I had a good time though and the soup did help a lot. Then we went and visited Courtney for a little bit then we went back to my house and just hung out for about 45 minutes watching some TV. Nothing special but it was still nice to spend some time just relaxing and hanging out. It really made me feel better that people still care about me. And Courtney and Erica were talking about how guys like to be tough and all “I can take care of myself”, but as soon as they get sick they act like little babies needing love and attention. Who am I to argue with that though, I do it too. But hey, the girls do it without complaining too much so as long as we can get away with it …

Okay, I know I was only gone a week, but it was just long enough to throw off my routine and make things feel a little less than normal. I’m gettin back into it though, things are just as when we left so by now I’m feeling like things are back to normal and nothing’s different.

Been working a bit this morning and am about to make some breakfast (yes I realize it’s almost 11:00). Anyway, yesterday I slept in a little bit (till 9:10) which was awesome because I also fell asleep before midnight the night before so i got over 9 hours of sleep. I really needed that after the lack of quality sleep I was getting while on vacation. After I got up, I worked for a few hours, finishing the things I didn’t get done while in Minnesota.

Hung out with Erica for a bit in the afternoon which was good. We ate a little food and watched a little Scrubs on DVD. Then I went home and bought some tickets to the Padres game last night against the Cleveland Indians. The Padres haven’t been playing too well the past week and so with Peavy on the mound I was hoping they would at least win one. No such luck. Peavy gave up 3 homeruns, which is extremely uncharacteristic of him. They ended up losing 6-1 and have lost 6 of their last 7 games. I know the flu is going around the clubhouse and a lot of the guys are sick, so I can only hope they all kick the bug and get back out there and play like they did in May. Despite the loss, the game was a bunch of fun and we all had a blast. Hot dogs, beer, and baseball; it doesn’t get much better than that.

Me being the nerd that I am took my camera to the game with both lenses that I have for it. I had the stock Canon EF-S 18-55mm (28-88mm 35mm-equivalent focal range) and my new Canon EF 75-300mm lens. We were sitting in the upper deck, right above home plate, 1 row forward of the very top of the stadium. The new lens is awesome because sitting at our seats, I could zoom right in on the players batting and even the pitcher and they just about filled up the entire frame. I was a little impressed with the lens.

Got home a little after 11 and just basically unwound for an hour or so. I downloaded the photos from my camera and looked at them. I will say they came out pretty good for the most part. Anyway, it’s time to eat so I’m gonna go do that. [Kip voice] Peace out [/Kip voice]

With today being Monday and day 5 in Minnesota, it’s our last full day to spend here. We didn’t do anything major today, but we at least spent time all together. Got up around 8:30, ate breakfast and otherwise putzed around the house until about noon when we (mom, dad, Colleen, Maretta, and Chrissy) headed back up to Mankato and did some shopping.

After the shopping we went and bought some subs and then took them to a park where we met up with Sheila and Chrissy’s kids. We all ate our lunches and then after that I played in the park with Chrissy’s kids. We threw a wiffle ball around and played in the playground and just goofed around. It was so fun and it was honestly so cool just playing in the playground like a kid again.

We left the park after about an hour for Pemberton again and when we got here I played some Tetris with the boys then I took Christian out for a ride in my cousin John’s go-kart. We got back to the house and played a little ball before I took Nick out in the go-kart, and then took Christian out for some more go-kart fun.

Once we got back, we all got together again and went back up to Mankato and had dinner at a place that had like 20 different types of chicken wings. We had 3 different types: teriyaki, medium spicey bbq, and spicy garlic. They were all pretty damn good and a nice big beer complimented them nicely. The “medium” spicy wings were quite spicy. I would have hated to see what hot wings would have tasted like; I don’t think i could have handled that.

Now, I sit in the living room watching “The Longest Day” while talking to Erica and Clare and Brian online. “The Longest Day” is a pretty good movie, made back in 1962 about the D-Day invasion. It’s being shown today because it’s the 61st anniversary of the invasion. The movie is pretty well done and gives you a real idea of what it was like on that day.

Tomorrow I’m goin home. As much as I miss San Diego, I’m not fully sure I’m ready to leave here yet. I’m just having too much fun and it’s all gone by way too fast. I’m really happy I was able to make it out and spend the time with the family; it’s all been great and I love it up here. I’ve taken 921 pictures this week, so I’ll have to spend some time going through them and sorting them before I post them to the site.

Okay, for now, I’m done. It’s after 1:00AM here and I need to get to bed. Expect another blog or two tomorrow.

Day 3 was filled with even more partying. I miss San Diego but am having an absolute blast up here. We all woke up and took our showers before heading back down to Pemberton where we had lunch at the bar. I got a chicken sandwich and I gotta say, it was pretty good too. Michael, Gaile, and my dad each got a hamburger and it was probably the best hamburger I’ve ever had. The meat was just so good and fresh, I couldn’t believe it. Jamie and Sheila sure have some good things going on at that bar.

After lunch, my dad, brother, and Gaile took Mary back up to Mankato so she could pick up the shuttle to the airport. That all went according to plan. While they were gone, the rest of us were back at Sheila’s helping set up for Megan’s graduation party. The rain kept coming and going and everyone was getting nervous and anxious not knowing what the rain would do. About a half hour before the party started, the rain stopped for the rest of the night and so we got our party on.

Partied from 4:00PM-10:00PM. It was another good time just hanging out and milling around with people. The karaoke machine got brought out and so the singing commenced. It was pretty amusing and fun to laugh, but at the same time I would never go up there and subject myself to the same humiliation; heh. Once it got dark, out came the fireworks (literally). My cousin John got out a big firework disk that shot up about 40 feet in the air and then exploded as stars. It lasted about 30 seconds and was freakin awesome. After that we pretty much packed up and headed back to the hotel where I just sat around and talked with my parents.

So that was all yesterday (Saturday), and then today was sightseeing day. We all got up, got ready, checked out of the hotel, and headed out sightseeing through Mankato. I got pissed/scared though because when we were parked and looking for a place to eat, my new camera lens rolled off the seat and out of the van and straight onto the asphalt parking lot. Everything checked out okay but I was mad at myself for being so careless. In our driving around, we saw the house my dad grew up in, my mom’s old house, the church in which they were married, and even the school they were attending when they met. We also headed out to the Rapidan Dam and got some good photos. While we were at the dam, some thunderstorms started building and popping up, so we thought that would be a good time to do some storm chasing. We ran into a pretty decent storm and got some good pictures. No real lightning though, but a lot of rain and wind, so that was cool at least.

Once we finished our sightseeing, we headed up to the cities and dropped Michael and Gaile off at the airport (Michael just now called me to tell me that they arrived in San Diego just fine, so all’s well). We headed back down to Pemberton after the airport where we all just hung out and played some Rummy Royal (also sometimes called Tripoli). Afterwards I spent over a half hour on the phone with Courtney just talking and catching up. I wanted some peace and quiet while I talked to her because there were so many people in the house it was difficult to find a quiet spot. I ended up just sitting in the car because I was afraid of the mosquitos eating me alive. At this moment I have no less than 8 mosquitos bites, the majority of which are itching me quite badly.

So now, here I sit, in a very dark kitchen finally getting tired so I’m gonna wrap this up and get to bed.